PLAYING IN A LOST SPACE

in Heterotopia Zine 009 on Power 

Scenario: Playing as Police, Tactic: video timelapse reverse play to let protesters push police.


If video games can tell us something about social movements, it will be that protest and riots are ‘irrational’ acts. A quick scan of titles such as SimCity (1989-2014), Tropico (2002- 2019), sleeping dogs: definitive edition (2014) or Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014) produce a narrative that reinforce ideologies and a discourse of irrational and unorganized protesters versus organized and spatially aware police. In Playing in a Lost Space, I reflect on my personal experience playing the “arab spring” in Riot: Civil Unrest. A 2019 videogame that was developed in response to global protest movement.




HAMZA BASHANDY, PhD        

Ludic Portfolio of Research and Design
hamza.bashandy[at]carleton.ca

I am an architect and game scholar. I teach in the Interactive and Multimedia Design undergarduate program and in the master and PhD program, specialized in digital media at the School of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Design at Carleton University. My research sits at the intersection of urban issues and playful simulations, particularly examining the implications of playful interventions and computer simulations in participatory design and social movements...
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS

01. A Design Toolkit of Ludic Contentious Politics
FDG 2025, Graz, Austria

UNIVERSITE DE LIEGE
02. Mapping Spaces of Resistance in Videogames
FNRS Dissertation,    Liège, Belgium

03. Playing in a Lost Space
Heterotopia Zine 009 on Power    

04. Urban Rant Notebook
Indpendant Research
ARCHITECTURAL & GAME DESIGN

01. City.Craft
Workshop and Analysis of Minecraft in Spatial Design  

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

02. Return to Sender 
Research Creation Project,    TAG Centre           

03. Playful Memory
Research Design     Labo LNA, ULiège. 

04. Oshtoora Festival
Design Build    MADA Architects, Cairo.    
DIS-PLAY LAB

FOR LUDIC DESIGN AND SPATIAL PLAY   @CarletonU
Active Call MSc & PhD on Co-Design & Urban Sim Play
Start Date: January/September 2026    

Research Assistants & MS.c. Opportunities
M.Sc.       -> September 2025 / January 2026
RA-ships -> Flexibile

ACTIVE PROJECTS
The Crowd Problem in Videogames
SSHRC-funded project, Ottawa, Canada